A Wrong Supposition

The 1500s proved to be a rocky time for the Catholic church. People began to leave the Catholic faith in droves for two reasons, (1) the Bible was translated, printed and circulated to the commoner and (2) the published teachings of the likes of John Wycliffe, Martin Luther, William Tyndale, John Haas, John Knox, and John Calvin, just to name a few. The power of the printed page and men of faith became a significant threat to the organized Catholic Church for the first time since Constantine’s hijacking by replacement campaign.

These new Protestants or protesters of apostasy, taught many reforming truths to the public at large, such as: free will, salvation by grace alone and not by works, and particularly that when Christians read from the pages of Scripture, that they were to keep themselves pure and endure through the tribulation that was coming upon the earth -- that the we are to choose to behave righteously because of the liberty in Christ’s salvation, rather than buying righteousness through indulgences offered by the Catholic church, became an interesting catalyst. 

This was not hearsay or someone’s opinion, it was the direct translation of Scripture itself, the marvelous direct and clear truth - unpolluted! The early Protestant Reformers had a motto, sola scriptura, meaning only Scripture because they were coming out of a millennial coma of religious deceit and corruption. 

Folk were getting the revelation (pun intended) to seek truth and lead faithful lives. The fallout from this was extraordinary blessing that rests on the believer’s faith in the truth – people were prospering spiritually, mentally, physically and even monetarily. In fact, so much so, capitalism is the fruit of the Reformation! Thus a large migration had begun out and away from the Catholic Church.

In response, the Catholic Church attempted to stop the hemorrhaging of people with various strategies (not that they cared about the people), because people equaled money and political power – not too different from today. One of their strategies was to provide alternative interpretations to replace (shock) the teachings concerning the end-time tribulation by the Protestants. 

There were actually several Jesuits commissioned to do so, but our focus will be on two counter-interpretations that are at large today, which undermine the direct writ of Scripture. These two uncontested counter-interpretations have much to do with our Gentile-centric world view that separates us from Israel.

Jesuit Francisco Cavera was commissioned by the Catholic Church to study the Book of Revelation and come up with a counter-interpretation to that of the Protestants’ teaching. What he wrote was enticingly comfortable – a supposition that would discourage anyone from leaving the Catholic Church. So what was it? 

Easy-peasy, all the faithful who remained in the Catholic Church would not have to go through the tribulation at all and would be raptured out of the distress before it even began – a special exit for the Catholic VIPs! This is akin to the teaching of indulgences - blindly follow the Catholic church and you’ll be justttttt fine. 

This is the roots of our pre-tribulation rapture teaching that SEPARATES a Gentile-centric Church’s fate from the Jews, whom Scripture says is yet to be re-grafted and restored to the ONE Bride of Christ, the One New Man made up of both Jew and Gentile!

By and large, his teaching was unsuccessful because of the enthusiasm of people reading the truth, not supposition, right off the page of Scripture itself. However, many moons later, another man by the name of Darby, founder of the Plymouth Brethren, repackaged Cavera’s original work. 

His work also gained little attention until a man by the name of Schofield used Darby’s notes in the Schofield Study Bible. From there, many took this teaching as gospel truth - after all, it was in the note-section of their Bible! It was popularized even further through contemporaries, such as The Late Great Planet Earth and Left Behind series, etc., all dogmatically insisting that the Church would be raptured prior to any tribulation difficulty. 

It is ironic, in extraordinary proportions, that the Protestant Church has embraced a Catholic Jesuit’s counter-interpretation meant to replace the early Protestants’ teachings! It begs the question, what are the roots of these truths we are so zealously holding to?